A Little to Late
by NazChick
Summary: What if Lin and Team Avatar arrived a few minutes to late when rescuing the airbenders being guarded by the Red Lotus?


**Just a thought that came to me while watching the season finale of Book 3. Can't wait for Friday! The Book 4 trailer was amazing. Sorry for any spelling or grammar errors. Please leave a review! I'd love to know what you think. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own The Legend of Korra**

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><p>Lin, Su, Asami, Mako, Bolin, Kai and Tonraq ran down the tunnel in search of the airbenders. Lin was continuously scanning the mountain tunnel with her seismic sense as they ran, leading them towards the familiar heart beats of Tenzin's family.<p>

"Lin, do you see Opal?" Su asked from right behind Lin

Concentrating more on the people near those she was familiar with, Lin found her niece's heartbeat. "Yeah she's there; she's sitting next to Jinora."

Su breathed a sigh of relieve as she continued to follow her sister through the tunnel. Lin sped up all of a sudden, causing those behind her to have to run faster as well.

"Is something wrong Chief?" Mako called

"I think they tried to escape and their guards noticed." Lin shouted back to him

"How many are there?" Asami asked

"Just two, I can't tell you if they are benders or not."

Lin watched as the one guard began to move in Jinora's direction, reaching for someone. Her eyes widened when she realized that the guard wasn't grabbing Jinora but the person next to her, Opal.

"We're here and be ready." Lin shouted slamming out a hole in the wall by the entrance of the gave the airbenders were in

The guard standing at the entrance spun to face them and sent two rocks at the group. Su made an earth wall to block them while Lin turned to face the second guard, "Let her go." Lin snarled at the guard who was holding onto Opal

In response the guard sent a blast of fire at Lin, who made her own earth shield to deflect it and then she charged him. She dogged three more fire blasts before the fourth one caught her arm, knocking her back. Mako joined her and began to deflect the fire away from the airbenders while Lin advanced on the guard once more, this time with Su's assistance. Su's attacks were harsh and quick; looking over at her sister Lin saw the anger in Su's face. Suddenly the guard tossed Opal away from him, but instead of tossing her to the side he tossed her right at Lin and Su, following up with a large blast of fire towards them.

Lin caught Opal and shielded Opal from the fire while Su took the advantage of the guard's distraction to slam him with a rock, successfully knocking him out.

Su smirked in satisfaction but was pulled away from her victory by the shout of her daughter.

"Aunt Lin!" Opal cried as she tried to push herself out from under her aunt's body but the dead weight of her aunt in her armor was too much for the young airbender

Su spun to see Lin unconscious lying over Opal who was trying to move her aunt. They were only a few feet from Su and Su cleared the distance in just a few seconds. Once there she kneeled besides her sister and daughter and pulled Lin's upper body onto her and then dragged her off Opal so that Lin's upper body was lying in Su's lap.

"Lin!? Lin please wake up!" Su cried shaking her sister's shoulders

Opal sat up and began to check Lin for injures assisted by Pema who had moved over to the Beifong women.

"It looks like she hit her head, I've found blood." Pema said as she brushed Lin's hair back to reveal a trickle of blood running down her face

At that moment Lin began to stir in Su's lap, blinking her eyes to clear her vision to find Su, Opal and Pema all staring down at her. Lin noticed the tears in Su's eyes and began to sit up, ignoring the pain radiating in her head.

"Su, what's wrong?" Lin asked once she had managed to get herself into a sitting position in front of her sister

"Wh…what's…what's wrong?...you ask me what's wrong after to get yourself knocked out while saving my daughter and you ask me what's wrong." Su sniffled pulling Lin into a hug not caring if Lin didn't want to show so much affection in front of all the people who were now watching them.

Lin hugged her little sister back and look passed Su's shoulder to see the worried expression on Opal's face. Lin removed one of her arms from Su and gestured to Opal who tossed herself into her aunt's embrace.

"I hate to break this up but Tonraq, Mako and Bolin have gone in search of Korra and Bumi and Kya look like they really need to get out of here." Asami said as she approached the three Beifong women

"Right, let's get back out to Tenzin then." Lin said using both Su and Opal to help her stand up before wavering slightly

"Can you walk?" Su asked steading Lin

"Yeah I'm fine, just a little dizzy standing up."

The group began to move back down the tunnel with a few airbenders assisting Bumi and Kya. Once outside they saw as Korra chased after Zaheer and then watched as Jinora led the airbenders to help bring down Zaheer. After Su had extracted the poison from Korra, Tonraq carried her to Oogi.

"How exactly are we all supposed to leave?" Pema asked as she realized that they only had Oogi and Kai's bison Lefty

Tenzin pulled out a bison whistle and blew, a few minutes later the rest of the bison appeared and landed next to them

"I thought that the whistle only worked for the bison that you own?" Jinora asked her dad as they loaded everyone on to the bison's backs and took off

"They knew we needed them so it worked." Tenzin replied

Jinora shrugged off her dad's vague response and watched as Su tried to tie a piece of fabric around Lin's head wound

"Su, will you leave me alone please. My head isn't that bad, look the bleeding has stopped." Lin tried to reason with her sister while she fought off Su's attempts to help her

"I almost lost you twice today after thirty years of not seeing or talking to you, forgive me if I want to try and take care of you." Su snapped

Lin chuckled and finally relented. Seeing the opportunity Su quickly wrapped the fabric around the wound and Lin's head.

"You're sounding a bit like me now Su. I think all the mothering I tried to do on you may have finally rubbed off." Lin said with a chuckle

Su swatted Lin in the arm then sat next to her sister against Oogi's saddle, "Thank you for saving Opal." Su said quietly once she was sitting next to Lin

"You're welcome squirt."

Su chuckled at the old nickname and rested her head on Lin shoulder as they traveled back to Air Temple Island in silence.


End file.
